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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Anna Sewell had no business packing this much trauma into a book about horses. This was an equally heartbreaking and heartwarming story from the perspective of black beauty, and there was a surprising amount of awareness of the intersection between social class and working conditions / quality of life of both horse and worker. I enjoyed this a lot and the last paragraph had me in tears. "My troubles are all over, and I am at home".
I never really thought that I would enjoy this story. I have known about it all my life, thinking of it as the boring live action film that never really suited my tastes. However, as an adult I have discovered some great anthropomorphic stories that attempt to tell us a bit about humankind through the eyes of creatures. What I wasn't aware of was that this story precedes some of the books I've read, like [b:The Call of the Wild/White Fang|37677|The Call of the Wild/White Fang|Jack London|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1168977937l/37677._SY75_.jpg|6180419], [b:The Jungle Books|41684|The Jungle Books|Rudyard Kipling|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349066474l/41684._SY75_.jpg|3183592], [b:Animal Farm|170448|Animal Farm|George Orwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1325861570l/170448._SY75_.jpg|2207778], and [b:Watership Down|76620|Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)|Richard Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405136931l/76620._SY75_.jpg|1357456]. Sewell was ahead of her time. Through Beauty's life and perspective she illustrates both the nature of good and evil through the acts of man and what it's like to live as a servant. This dynamic is seen in countless instances between a beast of burden and human relationship. Sewell does a service to the idea of kindness towards horses and the like, but also signifies 17th century ethics with how women and slaves are treated. I came to realize that this book is far more a significant classic than I had myself convinced of in my youth.
It was nice to re-read my childhood favorite. It's a nice quick read, and actually provided some insight into an aspect of Victorian England you wouldn't normally consider.
This book is not what I expected. I watched the movie first when I was young then I recently got the book. I don’t know if I had too high of expectations for the book but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Usually books tend to be more personal than the movie ,but this book just seemed not so personal of black beauty’s tale. At the end it just seemed like it was missing something.
Cute book, interesting perspective. I learned a few things about horses.
emotional
reflective
sad
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Okay the title of this blog post actually has nothing to do with the review, but I thought it might encourage you to read it. Did it work? Anyway, let me tell you how to turn me off from a book: Call it "Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse." I can't even type that without laughing out loud because it sounds so dorky. I really had zero interest in reading this book, because a) I'm not a huge horse person (they scare me, and vet school was enough torture thank you very much), and b) I don't really like books narrated by animals. Buuuttt I've been trying to get through all my children's classics, and this one came highly recommended by some friends, so I decided to listen to the audiobook.Why I Enjoyed Black Beauty:
1. The excitement of reading a well-loved classic for the first time cannot be underestimated. Not only is it fun to finally be able to say you've read the book, too, but it's also fun to uncover all these things people have known all along. In this book, the biggest surprise for me was finding out that Black Beauty was a boy. I mean, what? Who names their male horse Black Beauty? But whatever, I guess that's beside the point. Most of you out there already knew this fact. I found it mind-blowing.
2. In all seriousness, this book was written with an unexpected sophistication. I thought reading a book from a horse's perspective was going to be the dumbest thing I've ever done in my entire life (LOLZ, dramatic much?), but Sewell did an excellent job. From the very first sentence, you're seeing world from the eyes of a gentle creature, and it's beautiful.
3. The narrator of the audiobook, Ralph Cosham, was fantastic! He really classed the whole story up, too. Perhaps it is thanks to him that I enjoyed this story so much. I would encourage you to consider listening to the audiobook narrated by him if you haven't yet.
4. The anthropomorphizer in me appreciated Sewell's observations. Seriously as a vet I feel like half of my job is trying to envision and assume what an animal is feeling. How else can I convey the importance of diagnostics and specific care without explaining to owners that this is painful, this is scary, etc. Sewell did such a believable job with that in horses. It actually made me appreciate their role in our life even more.
I encourage any animal person to consider reading this novel if you haven't yet. It's definitely a lot more poignant and sophisticated than you would expect!
What's your favorite animal story?
I Loved this book! I am so happy I read this! it is now totally one of my new favorite books!